Prohibition of the Immediate crushing of the whole animal

Explanation: Ordinance on the protection of animals at the time of killing (current text, Official Gazette No. 83/2011) stipulates that chicks up to 72 hours and egg embryos are killed by the immediate crushing of the entire animal, the so-called maceration. This standard procedure in the egg industry is extremely cruel because the animals are crushed alive, while suffering terrible pain. The Animal Protection Act as a framework law which should protect animals from suffering and pain should ban this unethical practice, incompatible with humane standards of the 21st century.

In October 2015, Germany became the first country to ban the "chick shredding" practice. Every year millions of newborn male chicks are ground up alive or suffocated by the egg industry because they don't grow up into egg-laying chickens, and they are not considered suitable to be slaughtered for meat. Around half of all chicks born are male, and end up being "shredded" right after hatching. This practice is commonplace across both caged and free-range egg producers all over the world, and around 45 million chicks are killed after birth in Germany alone. The German government teamed up with scientists to find an alternative. From now on, new technology will be used to determine the sex of each fertilized egg before the chick inside develops, and all of the male-identified eggs will be removed from the hatchery.

We believe that Croatia should follow the experience of other countries and increase the level of animal protection in line with new scientific discoveries and achievements. The application of the new method would facilitate production in the egg industry itself; by this legal prohibition Croatia would show that it follows advanced scientific methods and treats animals with respect to their well-being. Therefore, we propose that the Animal Protection Act prohibits maceration considering that the killing of healthy male chicks for selection purposes is outrageous, shameful and ethically unacceptable when the new technology of chicken sex differentiation is already in use.

The proposal of the Association for this amendment to the Animal Protection Act was made in 2012 and amended in 2015/2016.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.